Sheila Smith McKoy, PhD

I support faculty and academic leaders on their journeys to transform their careers and the colleges and universities that they serve. 

Dr. Sheila Smith McKoy is a transformative higher education leader with over 30 years’ experience in leading change and innovation. Dr. Smith McKoy has served at large private and public universities, small private institutions, Research I universities, faith-based institutions, and an HBCU. She coaches in the areas of faculty development, leadership development and equity change management, and well-being.    

Her coaching practice is informed by her deep experience in change management, equity, inclusion and diversity as well as her deep expertise in faculty development and leadership development. She enjoys working with clients who aspire to lead at the provost and vice provost levels, as department chairs and directors, and clients who wish to deepen their equity and inclusion practice. She has a special interest in working with faculty members seeking insights about their best next steps in the changing environment in higher education. As importantly, as a coach trained in the CoActive process, she works with clients to find their next best steps.   

Over the course of her career, she has led efforts to build and refine academic programs, curricular innovation, and student success interventions as well as supporting faculty research, scholarship, and international engagement. As a trained mediator, Sheila specializes in restorative justice practices. She brings this lens to her work with clients and institutions by focusing on the critical value of diversity in higher education. Sheila is also an award-winning poet, fiction writer, and filmmaker. She also works with clients to focus on creating their own narratives about their work, their intentions as leaders and their aspirations. Sheila values the art of storytelling in the change and transformation process.   

Dr. Smith McKoy has served at the provost, vice provost, department chair and director levels. Having been the first minority and/or first woman to serve in many of these positions, she has a proven track record of connecting with faculty and leaders from diverse fields of scholarly interests and at all levels in the university structure, as well as working on social justice and equity at the institutional level. Smith McKoy is published widely in the areas of race and difference, mentorship, and diverse cultures.   

Sheila earned a Bachelor of Arts from North Carolina State University, a Master of Arts from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a doctorate from Duke University where she was the first African American to earn a PhD in English.